From the FIAT plant in Pomigliano (Italy) to the General Motors one in Indianapolis (USA), and back, with the blessings of mr. Marchionne and president Obama! At the General Motors plant in Indianapolis, the United Auto Workers (UAW), one of GM’s main shareholders, have signed an agreement for the sale of the plant (employing some 650 workers) to the J. D. Norman firm. Among other things, the agreement includes a 50% wage cut (wages p/hour to drop from $29 to $14). End of September, after a series of negotiations accompanied by real intimidations against the workers, the agreement was voted down, 457 against 96. At this point, J. D. Norman declare they have no more intention to buy the plant; on their part, GM and UAW try to use the menace to divide the workers of other local situations: they press for imposing wage reductions and plan real retaliations (for instance, making more difficult any transfer of the Indianapolis workers to other plants of the same GM group). The workers organize a fighting committee (the GM Stamping Rank-and-File Committee) and are now trying to extend their fight beyond the Indianapolis GM plant – in the attempt to involve both the Flint GM workers and the Indianapolis Ford ones, and the local population of cities and towns which in their majority revolve around such big plants. UAW have declared that first and foremost comes “global competitiveness”: the workers become aware of the fact that they have to fight both the bosses and the union. We will trace the developments: meanwhile, hurrah for the fighting US workers! our wish is that their fight be gritty and unyielding and that it may attract other militant sectors of a proletariat who, in the past, was the protagonist of glorious battles.
